This is good news & may be of some interest to the list,
for this court case was (and still is) linked to a notorious libel
suit which most nettimers certainly remember: Luther Blissett
vs. a Bologna DA public prosecutor. [<http://www.LutherBlissett.net/primer/ramp2.html>].
Dr. Lucia Musti started legal action following the release of
Luther Blissett's book *Lasciate che i bimbi* (1997). The book
was the result of a long-time investigation on media-driven, "paedophilia"(and
"ritual abuse")-related mass hysteria and police/judiciary
abuse, and the first chapter was entirely devoted to Musti and
her dirty witch-hunt against Satanists in Bologna. [<http://www.LutherBlissett.net/primer/deconstruct.html>].
The civil action is going on, but - NUNTIUM VOBIS GAUDIUM MAGNUM
- the witch hunt is over, the defendants (the Children of Satan,
who actually are a neo-pagan cultural association) have been fully
acquitted for the second time and Musti's professional reputation
is nearly shattered to pieces. This is a terrific "posthumous"
victory of the Italian sections of the Luther Blissett Project,
as well as a terrible defeat of the local ecclesiastic authorities,
the anti-cultist "spiritual" cops under Vatican command
and the conservative daily papers that were forced to print a
complete self-criticism. In particular, I'm talking about Bologna's
main newspaper, *Il Resto del Carlino*, whose hacks have slandered
the Children of Satan for years, and now they dare charge someone
else (who the fuck?) for their own policy. Check the following
news piece.

Of course, we're still doubtful about what really happened to
the little boy, whose mom and dad suspected (only God knows why,
and he doesn't exist, thus nobody knows) he'd suffered some ritual
abuse by the Children of Satan who never ever got in touch with
the boy or any other member of his family!). One of the few certain
things is that the parents took him to the exorcist (nay, two
different exorcists), which is evidence of their staunch bigotry.
One of the priests happened to be linked to an infamous anti-cultist
catholic organization, the GRIS [Group for Research and Information
on Sects]. The priest told mom and dad that there was a dangerous
satanic group in Bologna, called the Children of Satan. Perhaps
they had something to do with the child's depression.

Back in those days, pictures of the Children of Satan were on
the above-mentioned newspaper, 'cause some of them had been charged
with rape on false testimony of Elisabetta Dozza, the Abigail
of our North-Italian Salem!] The parents showed the pics to the
poor child, apparently putting pressure on him until he "recognized"
the bad guys. That's how the whole craziness started. And this,
below, is how it's ended. When the judge read the sentence, we
sung "La Marseillaise": "...contre nous de la tyrannie
/ l'etendard sanglant est leve'!"

From "Il Resto del Carlino", 27 January 2000, pag.9

THE SECT'S ATROCITIES? NOTHING HAPPENED

Bologna, the "Children of Satan" acquitted in the
2nd degree trial. Now Dimitri claims for damages.

by Nicoletta Rossi

BOLOGNA - Four years have passed, and nothing had happened.
Four years during which journalists and magistrated have poured
rivers of ink on paper, four years of the same old TV broadacasts.
Four years of controversies. The Children of Satan are innocent.
No human sacrifice ever took place. No collective rape. No mysterious
potion was given to any victim.

Innocent. After two years and a half, the Appeal Court confirmed
the Tribunal's verdict: the acolytes of Marco Dimitri - founder
and leader of the sect that put Bologna within the triangle of
magic cities - are not guilty of any of the atrocities they were
charged with, i.e. the rape of Elisabetta Dozza (the 15-year-old
girl who affiliated with the sect and then repented) and more
sexual violence on a 2.5-year-old little boy, plus more improbable
atrocities, including hanging around in Bologna on a van carrying
the corpse of an old woman, and killing a north-African immigrant
and burning his body during a ritual. Not to mention the alleged
involvement with the sect of unlikely persons, like a gentleman
of noble birth and a Budrio-based famous businessman.

Acquitted, for "the facts did not happen". The defendants
were Marco Dimitri, his "right arm" Piergiorgio Bonora
(a young man who now has quitted the group, got married and is
about to become a father), and their former acolytes Cristina
Bagnolina, Emanuela Ferrari and Damiano Berto. The "repentant"'s
former boy-friend Rino Luongo was acquitted as well. Yesterday
afternoon, while awaiting the verdict, Luongo kept repeating:
"Elisabetta's lies were due to the fact that I'd left her,
and she wanted to take vengeance".

Two women have been the gowned protagonists of the affair.
Early on, the public prosecutor Lucia Musti, who was certain that
the sect was dangerous. Later, during the appeal trial, the general
prosecutor Eleonora De Marco, who asked that the defendants be
acquitted [...]

Marco Dimitri, probably because he's got nothing else to do
[1], and Rino Luongo, who works as a warehouseman, did not miss
a hearing, like the most loyal citizens. "This is a defeat
for those who depicted me as a monster", commented Dimitri
after the new acquittal [2]. And the lawyers who have defended
the sect (Nicola Chirco, Guido Clausi Schettini, Roberto Bellogi
and Carla Mei) have announced a claim for damages on the ground
of wrong detention, for Dimitri, Bonora and Luogo stayed in jail
for a year.[3]

[Box:]

NOW THE ACCUSER IS A PORN STAR

Elisabetta Dozza, who told stories of rape and murder

BOLOGNA - She was the great accuser of the Satanists. Now she's
come of age and works as a model. Well, not exactly: she's a softcore
porn actress [4], and her past in the sect is an inspiration for
their performances: skulls, black palls and all the usual satanic
kitsch. She appears on specialized magazines, and has acted in
a movie.

When Elisabetta Dozza started to talk about satanic rituals
with the Carabinieri, it was november '95 and she was fifteen,
chubby and unsightly. Two years later, when she showed up at the
first hearing of the trial, the ugly duckling had turned into
a skinny, trendy 18-year-old. She knew she was the star.

Elisabetta did not live in a happy family, maybe she took the
opportunity: the more she told, the more she would get. [The DA
office] moved her to a new house, and she spent a summer in London,
studying English, a vacation that a girl of her class could never
afford.

Elisabetta went too far, mixing true and false month by month,
until she invalidated a tale that had some credibility in the
beginning. She was spoiled [by the DA office], this is the position
of general prosecutor De Marco. It may be the truth.

(Ni.Ro.)

Footnotes:

1. Dimitri's got nothing else to do because he can't get no
fucking job. The Carlino has exploited him as the perfect front-page
news bogeyman and destroyed his life.
2. I was there myself, and Dimitri said: "This is a defeat
for the Carlino".
3. During that year, the Carlino interviewed Lucia Musti at least
a dozen times, describing her as a new Joan of Arc fighting for
faith.
4. This isn't quite correct, 'cause she's a *hard*-core porn actress.
Here's the blurb of one of the two movies she worked in ("Bologna:
XXX Satan - vol.2"): "During a short interval in her
judiciary testimonies, the super-witness against the Bologna satanists
gives fantastic blow jobs and gets breath-takingly fucked in the
ass". From tragedy to farce, and this is no moralistic remark:
the mythomaniac who'd become a family-value, hearth'n'home heroine,
was exploited by the DA office vampires, then they discarded her
when she became useless (i.e. after the first acquittal). Now
she makes a living out of her former spectacular role. Soon, people
will understand that she's a victim herself.
Back to tragedy.